Best Call of Duty players of 2023

Call of Duty is the largest video game franchise in the world, with millions of players each year for the last two decades taking to the game. With that in mind, only very few have the ability to make it as a professional, and then even less can be considered the best of the best. But who was the best COD player in 2023? Here’s our list.

When assessing who are the greats in any sport or esport, or who have had the best seasons, it can often be tough to come up with a fair list that assesses both talent and performances as well as team performance and accolades, as the two don’t always correlate.

For example, Dan Marino is often regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but never won a Super Bowl ring. While this doesn’t detract from his abilities and what he did as a player, for many it pushes him down the pecking order when we talk about the greatest of all time.

That said, we’ve tried our best to pull together a list with all factors in mind. Here’s how we rank the top five Call of Duty players of 2023.

5. Matthew ‘KiSMET’ Tinsley

KiSMET could easily find himself higher than this given his MVP-caliber performances and three chips in the season, but as noted above, more consideration does have to go towards individual performances throughout the year, rather than just wins, and for that reason he just slots in at 5th place for us.

He had a 0.99 KD in the 2023 CDL season, but was instrumental in New York Subliners’ two Major victories and, of course, their world championship win.

4. McArthur ‘Cellium’ Jovel

Cellium has been perhaps the greatest Call of Duty player overall of the CDL era, a ferocious assault rifle player that is almost always one step ahead of his opponents.

That was no different in 2023, as he racked up a league-leading 1.22 KD and a 2.5 average LAN placement, despite only managing to win one trophy.

3. Thomas ‘Scrappy’ Ernst

Scrappy’s rookie year was one to remember, and he managed to exceed everyone’s already-lofty expectations.

The 2023 Rookie of the Year won a championship with Toronto Ultra at Major 3 and maintained a 1.13 KD, one of the most dominant assault rifle players of the year. Not bad for his first outing.

2. Tyler ‘aBeZy’ Pharris

The entire year was a battle between aBeZy and French phenom HyDra for the MVP trophy and they were arguably neck and neck right up until the very end.

The best entry SMG in the world, aBeZy was the constant thorn in every team’s side and never faltered for Atlanta FaZe, and he undoubtedly deserved to win more than he did in 2023. But, his Subliners rival had other plans…

1. Paco ‘HyDra’ Rusiewiez

The 2023 CDL MVP, two-time Major champion and now world champion, HyDra fought hard to earn a near-unanimously agreed upon number 1 spot.

There was an ongoing conversation about him vs aBeZy throughout the entire year, but HyDra absolutely came out on top, eventually named Console Player of the Year at the Esports Awards 2023.

All of these players are looking to start the 2024 Modern Warfare 3 season the same way they finished 2023, with the CDL now underway with Major 1 qualifiers.